Phone unlocking ban

[j05h]

Phone unlocking ban could hit you in the wallet

As of Saturday, your options for owning an unlocked phone become far more limited. You can ask your carrier to unlock it—and good luck with that—or you can pay a premium to manufacturers like Apple or Google for a new unlocked phone. You just can’t unlock your phone yourself—at least, not legally.

That decision was made not by voters, the courts, or even Congress. It was made by one man, 83-year-old Congressional Librarian James Hadley Billington, who is responsible for interpreting the meaning of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Billington decided last October that unlocking your phone yourself is a violation of the Act, which was originally written to prevent digital piracy.

What You Can Do About the Phone Unlocking Fiasco

[aziatiklover]

Where you been? Under a rock! Old news!

[AlphaDogg]

Lol this stops nobody from unlocking. It's as easy to regulate as torrenting. If you're stupid with it, you'll be found out. If you're smart, nobody knows.

[j05h]

Originally Posted by aziatiklover

Where you been? Under a rock! Old news!

I'm really hoping the white house petition about phone unlocking gets 100,000 signatures. I posted links to the petition earlier this week but my posts were deleted. Posting links to petitions is against the rules here.

[eric/]

Originally Posted by j05h

I'm really hoping the white house petition about phone unlocking gets 100,000 signatures. I posted links to the petition earlier this week but my posts were deleted. Posting links to petitions is against the rules here.

Could you PM it to me? I'll sign. DMCA needs to go.

[j05h]

Originally Posted by eric/

Could you PM it to me? I'll sign. DMCA needs to go.

Click the second link in the OP. Then on that page click the petition link.

[eric/]

Originally Posted by j05h

Click the second link in the OP. Then on that page click the petition link.

signed, thanks

[gnasher729]

I think you are interpreting the situation completely wrong.

Fact is that unlocking a phone yourself will be a DMCA violation. Fact is also that it is absolutely fine to want an unlocked phone. Three years ago, it was very hard to get an unlocked phone without unlocking it yourself; that's why there was a specific exemption made that you are allowed to unlock your phone yourself, even though that was a DMCA violation.

The change is that there are so many unlocked phones available that an exemption to the DMCA law isn't necessary anymore. Instead of arguing that this kind of DMCA violation should be allowed, you should request that any service provider should be required to unlock your phone for you if you demand it. Obviously since _you_ cannot legally unlock your phone yourself, but the service provider _can_ legally do it, they should be required to do so if you ask them.

[Jusfer]

Come on, folks, make this stupid law go away and kiss it good bye.
I only found out about it today (but I was one of the first to know that the pope will resign), and I just reduced the remaining needed signatures by one.

No fear about signing up for a petition account, it is a clean process to protect the legitimacy of petitions.

[velocityg4]

Originally Posted by j05h

Click the second link in the OP. Then on that page click the petition link.

This petition would get a lot more signatures if it didn't require creating an account.

[Jusfer]

Originally Posted by velocityg4

This petition would get a lot more signatures if it didn't require creating an account.

Not only this petition. Any online petition.

If, after doing just a minimal amount of research, somebody is still not creating an account, something is wrong with that person. And that is exactly the (sad) reason why such a step is necessary.